- James North Art Crawl: February
One of the unspoken tensions of the Art Crawl is the extent to which the event revolves around spaces rather than their contents. There is a predictable assortment of galleries along the street that establish an art crawler’s routine more than the prospect of the art itself (if only because oftentimes the exhibitions are poorly […]
- Vital Donation Via Vital Africa
The media invite for this morning’s launch event for the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s Vital Africa year of exhibitions was sweetened by the dangling carrot of a donation announcement that drew a substantial crowd and mild speculations that proved essentially accurate. Frequent AGH benefactors Joey and Tony Tanenbaum already have a well-known history of bequests […]
- James North Art Crawl: January
As I was pulling together my thoughts on this month’s uneven exhibition efforts and not-entirely-pleasant cold, I finally recalled that I have no basis for comparison to last year’s January Crawl. This time last year, I’d been in Toronto for the opening of Misplaced: Animals Lost and Found at XPACE, in which I was showing […]
- Top Five Hamilton Hits of 2009
When I spontaneously decided to compile a Top Five of Hamilton art events and exhibitions last year, the job practically happened on its own - 2008 was a promising year full of unexpected things in wonderful places, from Christ’s Church Cathedral to Cootes Paradise to 270 Sherman. There was a forward momentum that I had […]
- Steve Mazza: Unnatural Selection
I’m sure there’s a comment to be made upon the fact that I had to drive out to Cambridge to see a solo installation by a Hamilton artist the likes of which I can’t imagine having ever happened in the city itself. But it’s Friday and a week before Christmas, so I’d rather be charitable […]
- James North Art Crawl: December
I am hopeful that with the New Year will come a solution for how I handle future instalments of the James North Art Crawl on this blog. In truth, I scarcely handled it at all last month save for some passing remarks in my report on The Big Picture Revisited on the sustainability of this […]
- The Big Picture Revisited Part Three: Engaging City Hall
My third and final post in this week’s series reporting on ‘The Big Picture Revisited’ addresses the discussion around Engaging City Hall. As this whole event was hosted by the City of Hamilton’s Arts Advisory Commission with the intention of forming an action plan within the means of municipal government, this was a topic that […]
- The Big Picture Revisited Part Two: Sustainability of Arts Organizations
Continuing from yesterday’s report on The Big Picture Revisited with a focus on Support for Individual Artists, today’s post will cover the forum’s discussion surrounding Sustainability of Arts Organizations.
In his introductory remarks on the topic, Ivan Jurakic cited an exceptional quality in the James North landscape that has intrigued me for some time now […]
- The Big Picture Revisted Part One: Support for Individual Artists
There’s something cruel in talking about artistic survival in Hamilton, particularly when the event kicks off at 9:30 in the morning and artists are made to mill about the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre dolefully slurping coffee and wondering why they’re awake, upright and wearing pants this early in the morning after an art crawl. […]
- Le Cyc at Workers Arts and Heritage Centre
Between last night’s James North Art Crawl and today’s The Big Picture Revisited forum, there’s a lot of weekend content to be digested, enough that I hesitate to comment on any of it here with any degree of authority. It’s a good weekend to be critical, and I suspect that I have a few bones […]
